


Like A Hurricane

by blueroses96



Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, will add more tags later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 19:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17856005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueroses96/pseuds/blueroses96
Summary: July 1987 in Indiana saw a dangerous amount of rain. By the 29th, the storm hit Hawkins.An AU (?) of a really excellent Harringrove fic, Take Me Home Tonight by halfempty.





	Like A Hurricane

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Take Me Home Tonight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14825072) by [halfempty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfempty/pseuds/halfempty). 



> So this was something I had in my head while rereading halfempty's truly incredible fic the second or third time but only recently got the urge to finish. It's all plotted out but not all written yet.
> 
> It starts after Chapter 7 chronologically but I did start this before Chapter 7 was posted so it's not an exact match. If you haven't read that fic first, you can MAYBE still read this, but a lot of the jokes won't make sense. Also keep in mind this is more of a like "what if" plot bunny, I'm not trying to write this as an AU in the strictest sense, but I can't think of what else to call this. Anyway enjoy, please please drop a comment if you liked it, it really helps motivate me to keep going :)

“Chinese?”

“We’ve had that four times this week.”

Billy rolled his eyes. “Okay, it was only two.”

“We had leftovers!” cried Max.

Steve interrupted, “Max, you wanna use the phone and order a pizza?”

Steve had bought the phone for the apartment because Dustin wouldn’t stop coming over and banging on the door, hollering in the stairwell how Steve was never in his actual house anymore (“That’s not true, I’m there sometimes for Luke and Leia, Steve griped) and he missed their phone calls.

So Max bullied him into bringing home the most godawful cashgrab bullshit he’d ever seen. Which cokehead business exec thought people would want a phone shaped like Garfield the Cat? Billy wanted his number -- he’d call him on the fuckin’ Garfield and ask where he got his coke.

Max gave Steve a death glare. “I’ve USED a PHONE before, STEVE! I’m not EIGHT!” She still stalked over to Garfield and dialed the number. By memory. Jesus God, Susan was gonna kill him -- they couldn’t keep getting takeout for dinner. Maybe he should get some cookbooks, go total fag and all. It’s not like he wasn’t one already.

The pizza came twenty minutes later. Billy put on a VHS and went to get waters like a gay dad, and sat real close to Steve because he could. Steve and Max were eating four slices each already, like usual, leaning over the box on the coffee table like little gremlins.

Garfield rang, making a godawful sarcastic meowing noise. Really it was just some middle-aged guy saying “meow” in a monotone over and over. Really he should kill them both for buying it.

Max said, “Let them call back later!” like an obnoxious girlfriend, but Billy hardly ever got calls -- there were only five people with his number, and two of them were inhaling six dollars worth of pepperoni pie in Billy’s living room. He figured it was the chief, asking if Billy could take Jane for the week. He picked up on the fourth meow.

“Hey,” Billy said into the phone.

“Billy?” Susan’s voice asked, shaking up and down registers. She sounded upset. It made Billy’s throat squeeze shut.

“Yeah. Susan? What’s wrong, what happened?”

She took a deep breath and sighed it out haltingly. “I need you to take Max for the week.”

Billy’s head filled with a blank static. His dad must’ve hit her. He didn’t know how he knew but he just knew. It couldn’t be anything else.

“Yeah no problem,” Billy’s voice said, somewhere far away. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” She didn’t say anything. Billy felt cold to his toes with fear and whispered, “Susan? You there?” Maybe his dad was listening. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to be calling him. “Susie?”

“Yes, I’m here.” Jesus God. She wasn’t whispering back though. That was good.

“Where are you?”

“Karen’s. I mean, the Wheelers’.” Her voice sounded like a kid’s, completely unsure. He’d never, ever heard Susan sound like that before. He felt so bad; he’d really thought she was safe at the house. His dad never made like he was gonna hit her; he never even said anything about it. That’s not how it was with Billy’s mom - he’d never shut up about smacking something out of her or giving her a real reason to cry.

“Do you need anything? You want me to come over?” he asked like a giant den dad. Christ. Someone needed to be the fucking den dad. His actual dad was for goddamn fucking shit.

Susan started to say, “No, just stay with Max” but her voice broke when she said Max. Billy pictured her by herself in the Wheeler’s big kitchen, bruises all over her face. Maybe more than her face. He could only picture it a half a second before he said, “I’m coming over, Susie” and hung up.

Max was still watching the movie full volume when he came back in the living room, so he thought she probably didn’t hear anything. Steve was watching Billy, though. He got a wrinkle between his brows when he saw Billy’s face.

“Steve, can you stay here till I get back, I’m going out for a few hours,” Billy said in a rush. He went into his room for his leather jacket and patted the pockets. Keys were still there.

Max looked scary as he put the jacket on. “What? We’ve only just started this movie!” she said at a level five. Billy went to the door and didn’t say anything. There wasn’t time to explain, and anyway Susan probably didn’t want her to know yet.

He heard Max yell “ASSHOLE” at a level eight when he slammed the door on accident. His feet pounded down the stairs. There were so many in that moment, it felt like.

He pulled out of the apartment lot fast and drove like a crazy person towards the Wheelers’. It seemed like there was more traffic than normal. What was the whole fucking town of Hawkins fucking Indiana doing out on a Sunday night? He felt like screaming as he got to the fourth intersection that had cars at the other stop signs. He drummed his fingers and moved his left leg up and down instead, waiting for them to go. The radio wasn’t even on. He forgot to turn it on when he got in the car. That was fine. He didn’t feel like listening to anything, anyway.

Billy got to the Wheelers’ in ten minutes even though it was usually fifteen (Steve would say “usually twenty, fifteen the way you drive”). He got flipped off by five people, three more than usual. Ha. It wasn’t really funny.

Billy knocked on the Wheelers’ door. After a few seconds, Mrs. Wheeler answered and gave him a big sad smile. “Hello, Billy,” she said. She stepped to the side.

“Hi, Mrs. Wheeler,” Billy said in a rush as he passed her. Susan wasn’t in the kitchen anymore.

“She’s in the basement,” Mrs. Wheeler said in a big sad mom tone.

“Thanks, Mrs. Wheeler,” he said, already at the basement door.  
  
Susie was sitting at the dragons table with a mug of coffee, staring at the wall. The chair across from her was shoved away from the table, like maybe Mrs. Wheeler was sitting there before Billy came over. She was holding a bag of frozen peas over one side of her face, near her mouth. Her eyes looked like she’d been crying. She looked so much like his mom, with a thing of peas on her face, crying. He said, “Susie?” and she startled a little so he said, “Sorry, sorry.”  
  
Susan said, “No, you’re fine, Billy.”  
  
She looked like she was about to say more, so Billy said, “Max is with Steve, they’re at my place watching a movie. She don’t know you called.”  
  
Susan said, “Oh” and then said “Thank you, Billy,” in two different weird tones. Billy didn’t know many of Susan’s tones but he had thought he knew enough of them.

She was giving him a weird look too. Billy wondered how he looked to her, wearing one of Steve’s awful prep shirts under his leathers. He wasn’t really worried about that right now though.  
  
“It ain’t a problem,” he said. He went over to sit in the shoved-out chair. “So what happened?”

Susan protested a lot but eventually told him the shit. Apparently it happened during the family dinner, which Susan said in an affronted way that almost made him smile. His dad said some shit about Max being with Billy on the weekends. Susan said that it was good they loved each other so much (Billy gagged internally) and that they were acting like a real family. Dad said, you call that acting like that a real family? Leaving without saying a word to your old man? and Susan said, did you even want him to? I got the impression you wanted him gone. You practically stole from him, you used him. I understand you miss Helen, but that’s no excuse -- and Dad reached across the table and smacked her on the jaw.

Billy interrupted, “He didn’t steal from me.”

Susan stared at him.

“Well, I mean. He’s my dad. It’s not… it’s not like he mugged me.”

Susan shook her head slowly. “It… he took your money, that you worked for, when he didn’t need it. He told you he did but he didn’t. It was wrong.” She was looking right at him with her face all screwed up. Her chin looked like avocado skin.

Billy didn’t want her to start crying in front of him so he let it go. “What happened after that?”  
  
“I left and came here,” she finished. She sounded exhausted. “Karen’s letting me stay here for now.”  
  
“She’s a saint, honestly,” Billy said. Ha. It wasn’t really funny though. “You know there’s always a couch for you at my place, right?”  
  
Susan looked surprised to hear that, which Billy didn’t get at all. Of course she could stay at Billy’s. That was Max’s mom.  
  
Susie said, “Thank you very much, Billy, but I’m good right here. If you could watch Max for the rest of the week, I’d appreciate that a lot.” She made it sound like he was a babysitter.  
  
Billy thought maybe he was annoying her. She said not to come. But she looked real awful, holding a bag of peas and drinking coffee alone in the Wheelers’ basement. “You want me to bring you dinner? We got pizza.” Unless Billy’s favorite gremlins had eaten it already. Max probably wouldn’t save any for him after how he stormed out. Billy could go out to Mike’s and pick up a couple slices though. The pizza Mike’s. Ha. It still wasn’t funny.  
  
“No, that’s alright, I’ve eaten. Mrs. Wheeler made a really lovely lasagna casserole, she said she would show me how to make it sometime.” She smiled at that, a small little thing.  
  
Billy smiled too. “That’s nice, Susan.” He felt a bit like a den dad again, saying something like that, but it was nice. He was glad she had Mrs. Wheeler. “You sure you don’t need anything? Baking soda?”  
  
Susan’s smile went away and she looked confused. “Why would I need that?”  
  
“He got a lot of rings. Did your lip split?”  
  
Susan readjusted the peas on her face. “Y-Yes, a bit.”  
  
“Can make you a paste, with water and baking soda,” Billy said. “Put it on your lip, helps it heal.” He used to make it for his mom. His dad liked backhanding her on the mouth. Guess it made him feel less like he was beating a woman. It was still beating a woman, though.  
  
Susan stared at him. And stared at him. She didn’t say anything at all. She looked a bit how she looked after Max told her he paid his dad eight hundred dollars for hospital bills -- really pissed off and disbelieving. “No, thank you, Billy. Mrs. Wheeler probably has baking soda.”  
  
Billy felt dumb. Of course Mrs. Wheeler had baking soda. He guessed he had some kind of look on his face because Susan stopped looked pissed and added, “Thank you for the advice, Billy. Thank you so much for coming over and checking on me, it means a lot.”  
  
She sounded like she meant it, so that was okay. “Yeah, it’s no problem, Susan,” he said. “Call me if you need anything. Or if you wanna talk to Max.”  
  
“I will, Billy.”  
  
“What should I tell her? She’ll wanna see you, if she knows about-” Billy gestured to the peas.

Susan hesitated. “Yes, I -- I know. I -- if she asks, just tell her, that, your dad is out of town and I’m at my sister’s.”

Billy looked at her. “I don’t think she’ll buy that. Why you at your sister’s?”

Susan pursed her lips a bit. “I -- she’s, she needs someone to drive her to the airport tomorrow morning. For...a friend’s shotgun wedding.”

Billy stopped himself from rolling his eyes around the Wheeler’s basement, but he still said, “You’ve been reading too many of Karen’s books,” which made Susan laugh.

•••••

When Billy got home, Max wasn’t in the living room anymore. Steve was. He had the TV on mute, and it painted colors on his face as he watched Billy lock the door.

Billy guessed he wanted to know what was up. He didn’t really wanna talk about it at all, but it was his duty as a boyfriend he guessed. He said, “My room,” and Steve got up to follow him.

Billy sat on the bed and starting taking off his boots. Steve closed the door behind him and asked quietly, “So? What happened?”

Billy sighed. “Susan wants me to take Max for the week. My dad hit her.”

“He -- he hit Max? Uh, when?!” Steve hiss-yelled.

“No, no, her mom. He hit Susan. Tonight. During dinner, I guess,” Billy murmured back. The Family Dinner. Ha.

Steve stared. “Jesus.”

“Yeah.”

“Where, where’s she now?”

“The Wheelers’. She’s staying with them for the rest of this week I guess. She and Karen are friends or something.”

Steve made a face when Billy said Karen, which was completely unfair. Billy didn’t even say five words to her today, let alone flirty ones. Lascivious ones, Steve would say. He used all the SAT words.

“Wait,” Steve said slow, working up a wrinkle frown. “For the week? I mean, what about...after that?”

“I mean, I guess Max’ll keep staying here.”

“Yeah. What about Susan?”

Billy thought about it. “Probably get her own place. I mean, unless she goes back to the house.”

“...she wouldn’t do that, would she?”

“I dunno,” Billy said. He felt like he was talking through water. “I mean, my mom stayed with him and he did way worse than smack her mouth.” Him dangling her out a window was probably the worst. Billy was so scared he was gonna kill her. “But she’s got Max to think about. So I don’t know.”

Steve stared at him. “What, your mom didn’t have you to think about?”

Billy closed his eyes. God. Shut up Steve. Can’t say that. “Uh. I mean. I wasn’t, uh. Max is a good kid, you know? I wasn’t, always. Most of the time.”

Steve stared at him.

Billy sighed. “I mean, I know I don’t need to get hit for that. I’m just saying sometimes I acted out even though I knew he’d hit me. I could’ve just not done that. But Max, she’s not like that, she don’t talk back like me.”

“ _Max_ doesn’t talk back?”

Billy smiled. “Okay, yeah. But not to my dad. She’s scared of him.”

Steve didn’t say anything. He looked like he was thinking real hard about something, which was cute. Bill got up and kissed his cheek because he was right there and he could, then he plugged in the lava lamp.

“Okay, Billy,” said Steve, in a patient-boyfriend voice. “We can go to sleep.”

Once Billy was in bed though, he couldn’t seem to sleep. He waited for Steve to start snoring and turned to watch his face. It was lit up red from the lava lamp; it looked like he was in a darkroom.

It had been a real fucked up night, but with Steve right there, Billy felt okay.

  
•••

When Billy woke up the next morning, Steve had already left. Office jobs made you wake up so damn early it seemed. It wasn’t any later than waking up for school, and for welding class, but now that Billy never had to do that shit again it seemed impossible.

Billy was closing the auto shop real late today, so he didn’t have to go in till noon. He stayed in bed for an hour like a bum. Normally it’d be fun, lying around in just boxers, but without Steve there next to him he felt the weird walls-closing-in feeling start to creep up. It wasn’t bad yet, but Billy knew it’d only get worse. Today was gonna be for shit, probably. He hoped Tommy showed up so he could beat the shit out of someone. He almost hoped he’d see his old man, backhand him like he did Susan. God. He couldn’t think about it; he had to work, he couldn’t afford to get fired for being crazy angry today. He stayed still and breathed in and out.

Eventually, when it was almost 11, Billy heard Max come out of her room and pad to the kitchen. He put on a shirt and went to make her some eggs.

Max was on the counter getting a plate from the top shelf, where Steve liked to put them so only he could get them. He liked making Billy suffer. She slid off and went to put the plate on the counter; when she saw Billy, her face trolled over in a pissed off way and she clanked the plate really loud.

Billy didn’t know what crawled up her ass. “Uh, what crawled up your ass?” he asked, because he was still kinda mad.

“WOW,” Max screamed at a level six, which Billy squinted at. He needed Steve’s bougie espresso before he could handle such a level on a Monday. “You are SUCH a DICKWEED! I’m GLAD you ditched me and Steve, we had more fun without you ANYWAY! He screamed like twenty times, it was hilarious, so SCREW YOU!”

Oh. Oh yeah. Jesus. “Jesus,” Billy said, “I’m sorry, okay, I had to -- go do something for the chief. We can watch it again tonight if you want, it’s not due till midnight.”

She quit looking like an angry troll. “Hopper needed you? Why?”

“Jane, uh, she wanted to see me,” Billy lied.

“OH, WELL, IF IT WAS _JANE_ \-- “

“Oh my god, Max, she, she had a bad dream,” Billy begged off. He felt real guilty lying to her. “I -- about when we were in the basement or whatever. She wanted to see me.” He tried to make his guilty face look like a sad or embarrassed one. It mostly worked, he thought.

Billy was usually pretty shit at lying, Steve said his face showed everything when he spoke. So usually Billy just didn’t speak when he had to hide something. He knew he was probably as easy to talk to as Jane sometimes (like talking to a brick wall, Chief said).

Billy could only really lie well if there was a part of it that was true. Like when he lied to Max about Steve and him not being together (he was wrong the whole time, he guessed, but he didn’t know it at the time really). So maybe Jane hadn’t had a bad dream, but Billy’d had plenty, and when he woke up he always wanted to see Jane real bad. Smoking a cigarette in bed helped; having Steve in bed next to him helped even more. But sometimes he still got up to open Max’s door and watch her and Jane sleep for a minute. Till he remembered to breathe.

Max contemplated the lie with her brows furrowed. “Is she okay?” she asked finally.

“Yeah, it was a regular dream, not one of her crazy ones,” Billy kept lying.

“Oh. Okay,” said Max.

“I’m gonna make eggs. You should go get dressed,” Billy said. She was in a shirt Billy swiped from Steve, a pink and white Henley with three buttons at the top. She looked ridiculous, but Billy didn’t comment, because really anyone looked ridiculous in a pink Henley.

Max raised an eyebrow and looked directly at his boxers, which had donuts on them today. “Uh, _I_ should go get dressed?”

“Lea’me alone, I gotta cook.”

“I was just ABOUT to cook,” she said all snitty, but she was smiling. She went to go put on her work clothes and a million neon scrunchies. The pink ones looked so awful with her hair, it was amazing.

Billy decided today was a Bacon Day; he deserved it. When he opened the freezer door to get the store-brand bacon Max bought on sale, a bag of peas fell out. He glared at it before shoving it hard to the very back.

•••

Max got off work at 6, but Billy wouldn’t get off till 9, so Steve was supposed to come by and take her and Lucas to the arcade. Billy gave her extra money for lying to her, so he was gonna be in her good books for a while probably. Until she found out. Or maybe Susan would just go back to his old man anyway; it’s not like getting hit ever scared away his mom.

Billy couldn’t stop thinking about his mom, and his dad. He kept having to roll himself out from under cars because he felt like he wasn’t breathing right. Hank noticed and asked him to work register for a while. He almost snapped at one of the regulars, the busty woman who liked flirting with him. He didn’t find her as funny as usual. He wanted to scream at her to get her breasts off the counter.

“Hey, Bill?” Hank said.

“Uh-huh,” Billy answered.

“I’m gonna use the phone, why don’t you clean up the garage a little bit? Miles been getting onto me about all the dust, can you believe he bought this thing?” Hank produced a feather duster from under the desk. “Swear to god,” he grumbled, but he didn’t sound angry.

“Yeah,” Billy answered, and took the duster. He waved the feather duster around feeling like a big dumb fag.

A few hours later, Miles came into the shop. He whispered with Hank like they was in the FBI and then went back into the office. Billy wondered if he was about to get fired. He hoped he’d get paid for today at least. He might not, considering he did fuck all besides panic and get mad like usual.

“Billy? Can you come in here a second?”

Billy didn’t feel anything. He’d been feeling things all day and now it was like, this might as well fucking happen, and he was out of feelings. He was numb to it. Miles came out to cover the front, so Billy trudged over and went in to get fired.

Hank was sitting in the office, eating as usual. “Miles’ boyfriend made cupcakes,” Hank said. “You want one?”

What the hell. Billy took a cupcake and started peeling off the paper. They were really fancy looking - red velvet with piped cream cheese. “So am I fired or something?” he asked.

Hank looked at him weird. “What? No. You do good work, Billy, damn good work.”

Billy took a huge bite of his cupcake to avoid saying “not today I haven’t”.

Hank continued, “No, I called you in here because you haven’t been this way in a while, and I wondered what was goin’ on.”

Billy kept chewing. He didn’t want to say anything - if he did he might start crying or throwing shit.

“Is it your dad? He been bothering you?”

Billy, to his horror, felt his throat tighten up. Holy shit. He couldn’t cry at work. He left the office.

Miles was just outside, reading some queer mag at the desk. Billy put his cupcake on the counter next to him and went into the garage.

He popped the hood of the car the busty regular brought in and checked the oil. The stick showed the oil was still okay but Billy decided to top it off anyway. He went to get the oil and the funnel and poured it in real slow so it wouldn’t overfill. When he straightened back up, Hank and Miles were at the garage entrance lookin’ at him. He felt the Internal Scream start up again and counted to thirty real slow. “You need something?” he managed to say evenly.

“No,” Miles said. “Did you like the cupcake?”

“Yeah, was good. Your boyfriend can cook.” Steve thought he could cook, but he put vegetables in Billy’s eggs, so what could he know.

“Can take one for your boyfriend if you want.” Hank elbowed him, but Miles kept smiling his mean gay smile.

Billy graciously ignored him and put the cap back on the oil. Miles floated away to read his magazine. Hank walked into the garage, stopping beside Billy. Billy didn’t look at him.

“Sorry if I got you all het up,” Hank said. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Billy said. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Hey, what’d I tell you before, Bill?” Hank said. “You matter.”

Billy’s knuckles turned white, he was gripping the oil so hard. “Okay, yeah. M’fine, Hank.” He couldn’t keep some anger out of his voice and he waited for Hank to yell at him.

He didn’t though. He sighed and scratched the stubble on his double chin. “Yeah, okay. How’s Max been? Haven’t seen her most of the summer, she at a camp?”

“Nah, she’s been with me,” Billy said. “Eating all my groceries, mostly.”

Hank laughed and said “I’ll bet she is.” Billy remembered all the times she and Hank had pizza together. Jesus God she was such a prize. He folded the stand for the hood away and made to close it.

“What about your stepmom?” Hank asked. “She doin’ okay?”

Billy breathed in and out. He shut the car hood a bit too hard. “Susan’s okay,” he said, not looking at Hank. “She’s been around the Wheelers’ house a lot. She and Mrs. Wheeler are friends.”

“Nice woman, that Mrs. Wheeler. Real pretty too. Reminds me of my wife when we first got married.”

“Yeah,” Billy said.

Hank was silent for a while. He didn’t walk away though, so Billy stood there strangling a can of oil and slowly losing his mind.

Finally Hank asked, “You sure you don’t wanna talk about anything?”

“Hank. Nothin’ happened n’me,” Billy said. Another truth-inside-a-lie. It was Susan Billy’s dad hit, not Billy. Billy didn’t know why it was fucking with him so much. All that shit with his mom was a long time ago. It really was still fucking with him.

“Well,” Hank said, “you let me know if your dad bothers you again. I’d testify in court and everything for ya.” He patted Billy on the back, and Billy flinched real bad. He felt his face heat up. He went to a car Hank had raised and got underneath before Hank could say anything.

Hank left him alone till 5, when he hollered in that he was leaving and not to come in tomorrow, was supposed to rain like crazy and maybe even flood some. Billy gave him a thumbs up.

Miles was staying late in the office today, filling out a ton of forms and writing the next Great American Novel. Billy finished his cupcake watching him.

The phone rang, so Miles picked it up. Billy made to wander back into the garage to keep working, but he wasn’t three feet in when Miles called for him. “Uh, phone for you. Didn’t say who he was.”

“Hello?” said Billy. God he hoped it was Steve.

“What did I tell you, Billy?” Neil's voice asked.

Billy saw red. “You got a LOT of FUCKING nerve, calling here after -- “

“RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY!” his dad screamed. “IN THAT ORDER! I TOLD you to STOP INTERFERING -- “

“I DID FUCK ALL YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU’RE the one who -- “

“I SAW YOU! I WATCHED YOU GO TO HER LITTLE FRIEND’S HOUSE, I SAW HER CAR IN THE DRIVEWAY!”

Billy went cold with fear. He could hear his blood pumping in his ears.

His dad kept going. “You’re filling her head with lies, about how you were a victim, about how you didn’t deserve to be disciplined, making ME out to be the bad guy?! I’m NOT the bad guy and you KNOW it Billy, you’d be in PRISON if it wasn’t for me! I’ve always put a roof over your head, fed and clothed your ungrateful ass, and what do you do? You impregnate a fifteen-year-old, you run around with fucking n*ggers and fags and kids like a fucking reprobate. You flunk school, you do drugs, you sneak out, and I’M the bad guy for PUNISHING that sort of behavior? Your mother would be ASHAMED -- “

Billy saw red again. “STOP TELLING ME SHIT ABOUT MY MOM! YOU DIDN’T GIVE A _SHIT_ ABOUT HER WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE, AND YOU DON’T NOW! YOU JUST USE HER TO GET AT ME -- “

“I don’t give -- SHE WAS MY WIFE! SHE WAS MY FAMILY and now she’s GONE! Don’t you DARE say I don’t give a shit! I have been PATIENT with you, I have given you CHANCE after CHANCE -- “

“HAHAHAHA!” Billy laughed hysterically. “You’ve been _patient_ , that’s what you call _patience?_ ”

“ -- if you want to be a rapist and a criminal your whole life, FINE! I’ve done ALL I CAN FOR YOU! But you will NOT keep feeding these lies to Susan, to MAX. You better WATCH YOURSELF, Billy, I am THROUGH being nice. STAY AWAY FROM MY WIFE!” Neil hung up.

Billy could feel himself shaking. His hands were trembling. The phone wire was doing a dance with the trembles; he wanted to throw the phone. He was still holding the phone. “FUCK! YOU!” he shouted to the dial tone, and slammed it down.

He wasn’t breathing and he saw static behind his eyes. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t see anything. He felt hot tears drip down to his chin. He slid down to the ground under the front counter and waited. When the trembling stopped, he looked up, and Miles was there, staring at him. “Are you okay?” He blurted.

“I’m fine,” said Billy. “Don’t worry about it.” He got up and brushed past Miles to finish what he was doing on the car.

He worked until Miles said, “Closing time, kid,” in a soft voice. Billy put all the tools back and went to write up what he’d worked on.

“Hey, Bill? Do you need anything?” Miles asked. He got out another cupcake and handed it to him, like Billy was a little kid that skinned his knee at a party.

Billy wanted to shout at him, and jaw clenched with the effort not to. “Can I use the phone real quick?”

Billy called the Garfield. Steve picked up and said is a nasally voice, “Hello this is Garfield,” which would usually make Billy laugh, but right now just made him wanna cry again. Jesus God.

“Hey Steve,” he said. His voice sounded hoarse.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Billy lowered his voice to a murmur. “Dad called.”

“Holy shit. Your dad called you at work? Why?” asked Steve.

“He knows where Susan is.”

Steve was silent. Then he said, “Holy shit that’s bad. That’s...very, very bad.”

“Yeah,” Billy said, “I’m gonna stop by Susan’s, I mean the Wheeler’s. I’ll tell her he called and everything.”

“You should probably go to Hopper’s, too.”

“Yeah,” Billy said.

“Bill?” Steve said.

“Yeah?”

“What, um, what are you thinking? I mean, how are you, right now?”

“M’okay,” Billy lied.

“Bill. Do you want me to -- to come get you?”

“No, I gotta go see Susan.”

“I could pick you up.”

“Nah,” Billy said. When Steve didn’t say anything for a while, he added, “Don’t think it’d help.” He didn’t wanna yell at Steve. He knew Steve would look at him with his eyes all big and sad and Billy wouldn’t be able to handle it. He felt all keyed up, ready to explode. He figured driving around for a bit might help.

Steve sucked in air really fast and blew it out slow. Billy guessed he was frustrating him, and his stomach churned.

“Bill?”

“I’m here.”

“Please be careful?”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll try.”

“Don’t -- don’t drive, if you don’t think you can drive, if you -- if you freeze up or anything. Promise me you’ll call me if you need me to pick you up.”

“I will,” Billy said, “I promise.” He hung up.

 


End file.
